Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/105

Rh whilst the sum expended was scarcely sufficient to furnish the library of a literary character." But the calamities and poverty of men of genius are so proverbial, that the hand of humanity willingly draws a veil over their sufferings; and yet there is something higher than riches to be obtained in this world, and amidst all the difficulties he has to encounter, happy is he who can command the power of contributing even in the slightest degree to the well-being and happiness of the human race. It is this high hope, this internal moral conviction, which always has, and ever will support genius along the difficult and thorny track -which it is its destiny to tread. In 1780, Mr Hunter laid before the Royal Society an account of a woman who had the small pox during pregnancy, and in whom the disease seems to have been communicated to the foetus. The following year he was elected fellow of the Royal Society of Sciences and Belles Lettres at Gottenburg-.

During this period, he read before the Royal Society many valuable communications; among which we may notice, a paper on the Organ of Hearing in Fish, and six Croonian lectures on Muscular Motion. In these lectures he collected all the observations that had been made on the muscles, respecting their powers and effects, and the stimuli by which they are excited; and to these he added comparative observations concerning the moving powers of plants; but these lectures Avere not published in the Philosophical Transactions, as they were not considered by the author to be sufficiently complete dissertations.

Sir Everard Home informs us, that in the year 1783, Mr Hunter was chosen into the Royal Society of Medicine and Royal Academy of Surgery in Paris. In this year, continues the same writer, the lease of his house in Jermyn Street expired, and his collection being now too large to be contained in his dwelling house, he purchased the lease of a large house on the east side of Leicester Square, and the whole lot of ground extending to Castle Street, in which there was another house. In the middle space between the two houses he erected a building for his collection. Upon this building he expended above three thousand pounds, and, unfortunately for his family, the lease did not extend beyond twenty-four years. * * * * * * During the execution of this extensive plan I returned to England from Jamaica, where, at the close of the war, I had been appointed staff surgeon. * * * * I found Mr Hunter now advanced to a considerable practice, and a still greater share of public confidence. His collection had increased with his income. In this he was materially assisted by his friendship with Sir Joseph Bankes, who not only allowed him to take any of his own specimens, but procured him every curious animal production in his power, and afterwards divided between him and the British Museum all the specimens of animals he had collected in his voyage round the world. Drawing materials from such ample sources, standing alone in this branch of science, and high in the public estimation, he had so much attention paid to him, that no new animal was brought to this country which was not shown to him ; many were given to him, and of those which were for sale he had commonly the refusal; under these circumstances his collection made a progress which would otherwise have been impossible. In April, 1785, his new rooms were completed, and I devoted the whole of the summer to the object of assisting him in moving his preparations, and arranging them in their proper order."

The surgical practice of Mr Hunter now daily increased, and he performed